Fishing Tale
art by Denver Boxleitner
by Lance Le Grys
fishing with worms
from the bank of the river
I saw the head of Orpheus come bobbing along from upstream
eyeless and swollen
I called to it
is it true that you saw your Euridyce
before she melted to fog
the swift current carried it past
knocking against the bank and the rocks in the riverbed
dropping my pole I ran alongside keeping pace with the head
turning up like a barrel it spoke
it is a lie
my beloved turned to no mist fools pass on such stories garbled and senseless
falling into a pool the head paused as it turned in an eddy
when I turned to see if she followed
it was not she but the earth
that melted away
the rocks dribbled like ice in the sun
when I reached
my arms flapped like flat weeds
against stones in the bed of a river
it was I who was mist and unconscious
we were now approaching the white rapids
what then I cried the river outpacing me quickly before you are lost
but the head turned over again
and
face down in the water
was sucked into the foam of the rocks
Lance Le Grys is the author of the poetry collection Views from an Outbuilding (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, 2019) and the chapbooks Pilate Suite (Bottlecap Press, 2024) and Stray Hunter’s Bullet (Broadstone Books, forthcoming). His work has appeared in many publications, including The West Trade Review, America, Caveat Lector, The Naugatuck River Review, Knock, and The Southern Humanities Review. A selection of his songwriting indiscretions can be heard at legrys.bandcamp.com. His web site is at lancelegrys.wordpress.com. He lives in Castleton, Vermont.
Denver Boxleitner is a university fine arts student whose art, fiction and poetry have been published.
